"Take care, Orion! Now I have the stone and the setting; yes, that very
setting. Beware of the consequences, rash man!"

"Not at all. Say rather: Fool, who at last has succeeded in doing
something rational," he replied joyfully. "What I have brought you is
not a gift; it is your own. To you it can be neither more nor less than
it was before; but to me it has gained inestimably in value since it
places my honor, perhaps my life even, in your keeping; I am in your
power as completely as the humblest slave in the palace is in that of the
Emperor. Keep the gem, and use it and this fateful gold trifle till the
day shall come when my weal and woe are one with yours."

"For your dead father's sake," she answered, coloring deeply, "your weal
lies already very near my heart. Am not I, who brought upon you your
father's curse, bound indeed to help you to free yourself from the burden
of it? And it may perhaps be in my power to do so, Orion, if you do not
scorn to listen to the counsels of an ignorant girl?"

"Speak," he cried; but she did not reply immediately. She only begged
him to come into the garden with her; the close atmosphere of the room
had become intolerable to both, and when they got out and Katharina had
first caught sight of them their flushed cheeks had not escaped her
watchful eye.

In the open air, a scarcely perceptible breath from the river moderated
the noontide heat, and then Paula found courage to tell him what
Philippus had called his apprehension in life. It was not new to him;
indeed it fully answered to the principles he had laid down for the
future. He accepted it gratefully: "Life is a function, a ministry, a